I have always appreciated music and its power to change my state. I remember staying up late to listen to my favorite 80s songs on the radio. Hearing "Toto - Hold The Line" on a hot Saturday night in Athens, Greece, is a great memory.

That was a time before CDs and mp3s. Yes, you had to tune into a station and listen to songs or use cassettes or vinyl. You needed patience for the tape to rewind all the way to the start, and you had to dust off your vinyl records with a special velvet brush so that the needle would not jump.

There was an interesting shift that took place somewhere between vinyl and streaming services. We gained quantity and ease of use, but we lost something.

We lost fidelity and the feeling of slowing down to enjoy music. I still remember the vinyl records my parents owned and the songs in the order they were etched onto the vinyl.

Another essential element of music is reproduction. Without quality speakers, it is not the same experience.

I grew up in the 1980s with Bose speakers hooked up to a Pioneer amplifier, a double cassette deck, and a vinyl player. So, I can't listen to music with anything less than stereo, and nobody ever should. It's a crime.

Years later, in 2005, I was thrilled when I bought my first 5.1 surround system by SONY. I used the same 5.1 speaker set and the Pioneer amplifier for 15 years between Greece and the UK. I only upgraded the amplifier to a SONY Dolby Atmos and hooked it up to the exact same speakers.

In 2021, when I moved from the UK to Canada, I put everything in storage and for almost two years had to make do with an Apple HomePod mini. That was a painful downgrade.

Last week, I had enough. I went to the Apple store and bought the larger Apple HomePod speaker. I took it back the next day. It was a noisier version of the HomePod mini. I wasn't expecting miracles, but this was a disappointment.

I would love to have a more high-end setup, but space is limited in my Vancouver apartment.

I had been meaning to try a Sonos speaker for the first time, and this was the ideal moment. Not just any Sonos speaker, though—Sonos had released their first Dolby Atmos speakers a few months ago, the Era 300. This seemed like a good compromise.

I crossed the street over to Best Buy and got one. I plugged it in, and I could feel the sound. It was way richer than anything I'd ever heard before, even at low volumes.

After five days of using it and listening to my favorite songs in English and Greek, I feel like I've never really listened to music before.

You don't need to be an audiophile to experience good sound. This must be a basic human right.